


Language barrier

by Sephypsycologist



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, King papyrus ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 17:08:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16978596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sephypsycologist/pseuds/Sephypsycologist
Summary: a tiny human falls and they can't speak the same language





	Language barrier

Papyrus was sitting on his throne, enjoying the shimmering sunlight that came down from the roof. He was a good king, at least he thinks so, and he does his best to care for the flowers that Asgore had grown here. He missed the king, and all his friends, but their vacation must be going really well!

He was just thinking about trying to call Undyne again when something small dropped from the ceiling into the flowerbed.

“OH?” He got up and hurried over. Maybe it was some sort of animal?

But no. When Papyrus looked down into the flowers, a tiny human was lying there, knocked out from the impact but alive. “OH DEAR! SANS! SANS COME QUICKLY!”

There was a zap, and suddenly Sans is by his side, watching Papyrus pick up the human in his hands. “bro what….is that?”

“IT’S A HUMAN, SANS, BUT A LITTLE ONE. THEY FELL OUT OF THE ROOF,” he holds their small body with tenderness and worry in his sockets, “THAT IS A LONG WAY FOR SUCH A TINY PERSON. I DO HOPE THEY ARE ALRIGHT.”

Sans’ sockets were dark as he looked at the human. He’d honestly hoped to never see a human again in his life, but now there was another one. “pap, we should put them in the puzzle gauntlet before they wake up.”

“NONSENSE! THEY MIGHT BE HURT, SANS. I AM NOT LETTING A POTENTIAL FRIEND WAKE UP ALONE AND INJURED!” Papyrus huffed. His poor, misguided brother.

Papyrus’ loud speaking had roused the tiny human, and they slowly sat up. Both the skeletons froze and watched them look around in confusion. It wasn’t until they looked up into Papyrus’ face that they screamed and began speaking.

”どくろ！私を食べない！すみません！”

“oh geeze,” Sans sighed. This human was not speaking English. They were talking like the people in Alphys’ animes, and Sans did not speak this language.

“SANS! WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?” Papyrus was very worried now, as the human was curled up in terror in his hands.

“they’re speaking another language, pap. i can’t understand them, but i’ll go see if i can borrow a translation book from alphys’ place. go put them in the puzzle gauntlet and i’ll be right back.” Sans pushed his brother towards said room and vanished.

“O-OH….” Papyrus frowned and looked at the terrified human sadly, “I SEE. WELL, NEW FRIEND, I AM SORRY IF WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. BUT, I WILL STILL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOU, YOU’LL SEE.” He walked very carefully, listening to the panicked murmurs of his new guest.

“どうして？どくろを英語ではなせます。英語をわかりません！くそ！”

They seemed so distressed. Papyrus honestly couldn’t bring himself to put them through the puzzles just yet. After all, they were all designed with the previous human in mind, not someone so tiny!

So instead, Papyrus sat down on a chair in the observation room and spoke as softly as he was able to, “DO NOT WORRY, PLEASE. I ONLY WANT TO HELP YOU. I WILL NOT HURT YOU, I SWEAR.”

He hoped Sans hurried.

—

Sans rifled through Alphys’ things, trying not to have a full on panic attack. It was bad enough to have a human here, but it was a human who had an advantage dodge wise from being so small, as well as one who they couldn’t talk down! There were so many ways this could go wrong.

Surely the nerdy scientist had salvaged a translation guide before she….well. Sans shook his head, but sighed in relief when he found a Japanese-English dictionary. Yeah, this sounded like what they were saying.

He popped back to the observation room to see how things were progressing.

Papyrus was sitting there, the human still in his hands, but he was teary and pouting. “paps? what’s wrong?”

“SANS…” he looked up, sniffling, “NO MATTER WHAT I SAY, THEY ARE STILL AFRAID OF ME. PLEASE TELL ME YOU FOUND A WAY TO TRANSLATE.”

“yeah, bro. this book should help us.” He flipped through it to a section on common phrases and read through it till he could somewhat put together what he wanted to say.

He cleared his throat, getting the human’s attention. “大丈夫ですか？おいらの名前はサンズです。あの男はおいらの弟です。パパイラス。だれ？”

They slowly eased and asked shakily, “私？わすれました。”

“WHAT DID YOU TELL THEM, SANS?” Papyrus asked in confusion.

“i asked if they were okay, then told them our names and that you’re my brother. then i asked their name and they said…” he looked it up in his book, “that they forgot. ugh…okay, so no name.”

Papyrus smiled brightly, “WELL THEN, WE HAVE MADE PROGRESS. PERHAPS IF YOU LET THEM SEE THE BOOK, THEY CAN SPEAK TO US, TOO.”

Sans nodded and set the book on the floor. “set them down, pap, and we’ll see what they do.”

Kneeling, Papyrus set his hands down on the floor and let the tiny human stumble off. Watching both of the skeletons warily, they stepped toward the book and looked it over. They were relieved to see their native language, and the foreign one that was being spoken to them. 

They looked at it very carefully, glancing up to the monsters fearfully after every move, then stammered out, “I…frighten? skeleton scary. hurt me?”

“WE DO NOT WANT TO HURT THEM, SANS, PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS.” Papyrus urged, wringing his hands.

Sighing, Sans sat down on the other side of the book, spooking the human and making them back away fearfully.

This was how the rest of the day was spent. The human would pick words to try and express themselves, and Sans would do the same to get what he and Papyrus wanted to say across.

Whatever happened, it was going to be a very long visit for the tiny one.


End file.
